What is your favorite equipment to observe with?

[fred8615]

What you do you like to use when you go out observing?

[Christopher K.]

The Orion Skyquest Dobsonians are nice; I've had the pleasure of looking through Skyquests of three (?) different sizes--6", 10" and 12".

10x50 binoculars are nice for the Moon. Without a mount, 10x is really straddling the line between magnification and steadiness; Wally never recommends anything unmounted stronger than 7x or 8x. 10x50s on a Sky WIndow can be good to lessen the hassle.

[Christopher K.]

We've recently had the pleasure of acquiring a used Orion Skyquest XT10 Intelliscope. The readout capabilities quickly went bad (at least for now). The optics are first-class, however. The Moon is really nice up to even 120x (though the view gets rather dim at that magnification). Jupiter looks good, too. See "Orion Skyquest XT10 Intelliscope" in the Binoculars & Telescope section for earlier comments.

[Christopher K.]

I had the pleasure on several occasions to utilize Edmund Scientific's Astroscan. It's an awesome device for those hard-to-obtain magnifications (15x to 45x).

Although the device comes with its own cradle, I've been using a homemade ring-built-into-stool affair. I don't know if Wally Pursell or Frank Conrad built it. The new Plus version comes with a red dot finder; however, the older model BRAS has came with a skeletal dark metal frame that hooks onto one of the knobs that retain the carrying strap. The end of the frame has a circular 1x sight with a thumb tab to hold it flush alongside the eyepiece holder. Centering a bright object in that circle usually works well.

[Christopher K.]

The "Wonders of the Summer Sky" lecture is offered to the public every July--but this will be special July due to the Great Martian Opposition! Amy Brouillette will devote a good portion of the talk to the planet garnering everyone's attention. The lecture is on Friday 13 July from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. There is no admission fee and the talk is aimed at a general adult audience...
http://hrpo.lsu.edu/programs/friday.html

Current information on viewing Mars:
https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observi ... s-changes/

[Christopher K.]

It's one of those months! BREC Education Program Specialist Amy Northrop presents "Wonders of the Fall Sky" on Friday 16 October. She will take the audience on a fascinating tour of Baton Rouge’s autumn season. She’ll highlight the celestial gems that will sparkle throughout the next three months—gems visitors will be able to see live if they continue to visit HRPO!

Of course, at the time all lectures and discussions are remote. All HRPO remote discussions are targeted at patrons fourteen and older.

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